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Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl
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Originally Posted by Kapt Z
If this is the way we treat our Iraqi 'friends' I'm amazed we have any at all.
We blow up their country, and then hurl insults at the few who, at enormous risk to themselves and their families, even show up to put on a uniform and try to help us. Brilliant!
Boy, sometimes we can be real dumbasses. |
You don't understand the situation. I'm guessing that this incident took place sometime in mid 2007 at the earliest, as evidenced by the fact that the soldiers are wearing shoulder-SAPIs. When I left Iraq in early 2006, the situation was much the same.
Many Iraqi policeman, and some soldiers, are sorely lacking in what is required of them. They are often unmotivated, unskilled, unorganized and undisciplined. Many are cowards, and the few that are brave are almost combat-ineffective because they are undisciplined and are difficult to train. As if that weren't bad enough, some of them are insurgents themselves. They sign up, get halfway through their basic training (sometimes all the way), and then disappear with their weapons and gear and a lot of intel.
All this is notwithstanding the fact that many american servicemembers are treated like this every day. If I had been standing in that formation and that guy had been saying something different, but with all the cuss words, I would have felt right at home. It's part of the job. You have a duty to do and you are expected to do it. There is a mission to be accomplished. All other concerns are secondary.  |
Oh, I agree with much of what you say. I think the job of the US instructor is almost if not completely impossible. I would expect that his way of motivating the recruits works when the recruits are ALSO Americans, perhaps not so much when they are another nationality. You can almost hear them saying among themselves... "Do you believe this guy? What a dumbass."
As I have said in one form or another in these forums-
The Iraqi's will only clean up their country when they are motivated to do so. We will never be able to do that for them. What they come up with in the end may or may not be to our liking. We'll just have to see on that score. If I was that soldier I would be spewing alot of that frustration at the US Gov't not some Iraqi enlistee. He's the effect, not the cause.